Ellesmere Port 15 Sefton 11
ELLESMERE Port ripped up the form book to record their fourth victory of the South Lancs/Cheshire Division Two season on Saturday.
The Merseysiders arrived at the Whitby Sports & Social Club having won seven of their first 11 games of the campaign – the same amount Port had lost in their opening 10 matches.
But Port made a mockery of those statistics to run out narrow winners.
A penalty gave Sefton a 15th-minute lead and that was the way it stayed until moments before the break when the hosts were awarded a penalty try which Chris Carbutt converted.
Then, with virtually the last kick of a tense first half, fly-half Carbutt landed a perfect drop goal from wide out on the 15m line to give his side a seven-point advantage going into the second half.
But that lead was wiped out within 10 minutes of the restart.
The visitors pounced on a backs error to score an unconverted try before adding a drop goal of their own to move one point ahead.
Both teams then had players sin-binned before man-of-the-match Rob Finlay raced through the Sefton to score what proved to be the winning try.
The resulting conversion was missed but Port held on for a win which sets them up nicely for Saturday’s home clash with relegation rivals Ramsey (2.15pm).
Table-topping Ellesmere Port 2nds’ opponents on Saturday, Widnes 4ths, forfeited their scheduled clash. A youthful Port 3rds were beaten 35-8 at Parkonians 2nds.
Ellesmere Port under 12s thrashed Chester U12s 49-7 on Sunday. Port’s U16s put up a spirited performance in going down 33-10 to Wigan U16s while the U9s drew 25-25 with Sandbach U9s.
